For the last week and a half, WUWM has been reporting on youth violence: the causes and the solutions. Many of the people we've talked to told us how important it is for kids to have mentors who show them the right way to live.

Teny Gross is executive director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence in Providence, Rhode Island. The institute runs an outreach program and teaches non-violence in schools. Its approach has won support in the Providence community, and among activists here in Milwaukee, who call it a successful model for fighting youth violence. Gross speaks with Jane Hampden.

Alex Kotlowitz of Chicago is a Peabody award-winning journalist. His New York Times Magazine article, Blocking the Transmission of Violence appeared last month. Jane Hampden speaks with him from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he teaches writing.

Barbara Notestein is executive director of Safe & Sound in Milwaukee. Aaron Edwards is one of the group’s outreach workers or “community partners.” They speak with Jane Hampden as part of Project Milwaukee: Youth Violence.

Ron Edari is a professor of sociology and urban studies at UWM. He’s a native of Kenya; he’s lived in Milwaukee since 1972. Edari speaks with Lake Effect’s Dan Harmon about the economic roots of violence in the city.